1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to memory cards having semiconductor memory devices and in particular, to a memory card system and method for executing an application program thereon.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
As with personal computers, commercial utilities for various digital electronic machines such as digital cameras, personal digital assistants (PDA), digital audio players, mobile phones, and so forth are increasing. Digital electronic machines often have devices for storing data. Computer systems may use hard disks as storage units, but other kinds of electronic apparatuses may be equipped with semiconductor memories for storage media to reduce overall volume and weight and thereby increase their portability.
A storage medium with a semiconductor memory such as a memory card may conveniently be carried by a person and may be easily removed from a digital electronic machine. Such a storage medium may be fabricated in the form of card for simplicity and stable portability even when it is being removed from its machine. A digital electronic machine into which the semiconductor memory card (e.g., nonvolatile memory card) is operatively inserted may be referred to herein as a “host.” Examples of hosts include a personal computer, a digital camera, digital camcorder, digital music player, personal digital assistant (PDA) and so on.
A nonvolatile memory card may be capable of retaining data even without power supply. In addition, the nonvolatile memory card has the benefit of its small size and large data storage capacity. The nonvolatile memory card (e.g., an IC card) may be used in a system requiring security such as credit card and banking transactions.
Upon connecting a conventional nonvolatile memory card to a host, the host may not be able to easily determine what kinds of application programs are installed on the nonvolatile memory card. Therefore, the host may have to execute all the application programs installed on the memory card to identify what applications may be installed thereon. For example, the host may send commands for executing the application pro grams on the memory card. Then, the host may determine the presence of the corresponding application program by receiving responses from the memory card.
Therefore, the conventional approach may place too heavy a burden on the host and efficiency of the card system may be degraded as the host executes all of the application programs on the nonvolatile memory card to determine what supportable application programs may be installed.